Program

The SALT for Science Workshop will be held from 1 to 5 June 2015 with all-day programs on 1 – 2 June, a half-day on 3 June, and full day programs on 4 – 5 June. There will be a welcoming reception on Monday afternoon and the conference dinner on Wednesday evening. An optional day trip to SALT will be available on Saturday, June 6.

The Minister of Science and Technology, Mrs. Naledi Pandor, will open the conference on Monday.

There will be six keynote talks of 45 minutes duration:

Prof. Marek Sarna will present an appreciation of the life and career of Janusz Kaluzny and his contributions to SALT.

Dr. Kartik Sheth will discuss ALMA and its connections to SALT and the SKA.

Prof. Stephen Serjeant will explore the synergies between SALT, Herschel, Euclid, and the SKA.

Dr. Lucianne Walkowicz will discuss the LSST and SALT’s role in exploiting its discoveries.

Dr. Justin Jonas will describe the current status of the MeerKAT project.

Prof. Sarah Blyth will present LADUMA, one the the MeerKAT key programs, and coordinating SALT observations.

The scientific sessions will mirror the science programs we have seen carried out on SALT. There is an expansive range of topics, with presentations on:

Solar System

Exoplanets

Stellar Evolution and Compact Objects

The Milky Way and Local Group Galaxies

Galaxies Beyond the Local Group

Cosmology

Instrumentation and Operations

Collateral Benefits

20 minute long talks will be given by a mixture of students, postdocs, and faculty, representative of the breadth of the SALT partnership and of the science being carried out in South Africa. There will be poster sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Monday and Tuesday afternoons, there will be workshop sessions demonstrating SALT software tools, to help participants develop their skills for analyzing SALT data.